The final chapter. I found the Swanepoels' story after the Landie broke down from Ndole… in their own words “From Best 4x4xFar to Best 4x4xTar… Chrisna: The suspension troubles started on the way up the Escarpment. The first warnings came after Kapishya on the way to Lake Tanganyika (Ndole). We trie...

We broke camp for the last time early Sunday morning. IMG_0651.jpg We were to meet Heleen in Naboomspruit. We drove some 7 000 km through Africa, and never once even remotely felt in danger or threatened. Yet at the very first robot we stopped back in SA, a bloke grabbed at Ampie’s door and tried to...

Most of the rest went on a sunset cruise on the Chobe, in the hope of again experiencing what we saw four years ago - elephant crossing the river… Us and Jan and Alta stayed behind - I wasn’t really lus for a boat again… On their way back they passed our campsite, and I managed to get them in the pe...

Right. Last stretch... It was also really lekker to have Ampie and Chrisna back, we missed worrying over the Landie….We left around eight next morning. Short hop - just across the border to Kasane. This time the border was much easier, and soon we were on the ferries across. 20180713_180621 (1).jpg ...

Our ride back, all the way home after that, was kind of...reverential. (Is there even such a word?) We camped at Camp Nkwazi at the exact same site where we were on our way North, but I unhitched, and started jacking. Opened nothing. I needed to get Gump in full jacket. Everybody helped, be it with ...

Only afterwards did a lot of things come back to me. Just before the wheel came of, Forest suddenly felt different, a kind of strange vibration. I remember taking my foot of the gas, and thinking it might just be the road surface… There is so much that could have gotten wrong… I had just gotten back...

I remember going back and calling it on the radio. I apparently said that there was “groot bollie” (bollie was not the word I used) and everyone must turn around, the wheel was gone. ( I remember absolutely none of that). I remember then going and getting the jack out etc to start the “repair”. 674c...

Everything was like in an instant. I looked up and saw the Imagine was not level behind me, and my immediate instinct was that the right tyre had popped. Instinct got everything together and just guided Forest gently left to a standstill, just off the road surface, as there was no shoulder. I got ou...

APOLOGIES! There are very few pic's from about the falls on the way back.... We left the next morning around 8. It was now just driving. Fair roads, and we stopped at The Fig Tree Cafe for coffee and some late afternoon snacks. We reached Fringilla Farm around 5. As I drove in through the gate, the ...

Some more pics en route. IMG_0631.jpg IMG-20180722-WA0027.jpg IMG-20180722-WA0029.jpg Hannes sourced another lake on our way south, at a town called Samfya on Lake Bangweulu. We found a lodge, but decided to carry on down the road next to the lake. It eventually dead-ended a few k’s further into wha...

From the falls we were really heading back. The initial plan was to spend the next two days at Kasanka National Park, but Dewald and Hannes’ research showed that there was not that much to see, the main attraction is an annual bat migration, but that was only in October. So we left Lumangwe Falls. T...

Awesome. Yes. Amazing. For sure. Mind-blowing - Absolutely. Rememberable - FOREVER!!!! There is no pictures that can do justice, we all tried... DSC00127.jpg 20180709_174554.jpg IMG_0555.jpg It was really, really breathtakingly beautiful. Right up there in the top 5 most beautiful places I’ve seen i...

We carried on. Another really bad road. Not the pot-hole bad of the Ndole road, but mud. Those cool/scary/exhilirating video’s you see on youtube and Voetspore, where they slip-n-slide through very deep mud? That mud. Only - when you watch those video’s, you forget that it does not always rain. So t...

Ampie was living the nightmare. Being stuck in the middle of no-where… He was very cool… immediately got out, called the insurance, and started talking… (LISTEN: You MUST get insurance for this kind of sh.t.) Really. Marnus and I decided over the radio that he would drive on to Mporokoso, which was ...

Thanks Andy, Steers and the others that have been posting comments. Always lekker to know that people are interested... Andy, there was a marked change in the locals' houses "inland" and those further north and closer to the lake. Inland was definitely more "formal" and "neat", where further out and...

Ampie was really worried about the Landie’s suspension. He called Landcover SA from Ndole. and they gave instructions as to resets of the computer, but he was worried. They left about 45 minutes before the rest. We followed. Marnus was second, us third. Dewald somewhere, as usual caught up and moved...

We had some of the now customary “Canadian’s Pulled Pork” one evening IMG_4607.jpg IMG_4581.jpg and some awesome Venison Pie from Alta and Chrisna our last evening there. IMG_5109.jpg Same evening Jan went to bed early, only to get up after being warned by Alta, to attempt (in vain) to protect his w...

Marnus’ and us with Hannes’ drove into Ndole town the next morning. Not much to see, haggled at the market, IMG_4991.jpg IMG_4990.jpg IMG_5019.jpg had a beer or more DSC_0040.jpg with an awesome view DSC00111.jpg while Hannes and Julius went in search of good pic’s… DSC00108 (1).jpg IMG_4978.jpg IMG...

We all went out on a sunset cruise, some snorkelled, others had a swim in the lake. (Note to self: DON’T DO SUNSET CRUISES ON ROUND BOTTOMED BOATS. JUST DON’T. PERIOD) (I get seasick on the Sarie Marais in Durban harbour…) IMG_4623.jpg IMG_4626.jpg IMG_4625.jpg Some snorkel'ed - including Gatcha Goo...

What an awesome place. Awesome sights, clean sandy secluded beach…Very much like Jacobson’s at Kigoma across the lake. We camped right on the beach. IMG_4528.jpg IMG_4529.jpg There was a real terror of a wind first morning, blew everything not tied down, including Swambo’s hair and the lodge’s water...

I had that deja vù… Serengeti… late afternoon, sharp downhill, Lake Tanganyika, light getting really bad, driving through a village, bad, loose gravel road… Could the angels, Augustine and Celestine be waiting again? This side of the lake? Nope. (Though "Augustine" would be around much later...) We ...

Sometime on that road Ampie became really concerned about the Landie’s suspension… We were sweep again, and I could just breaking-up hear him worrying over the radio about getting messages on the the Landie’s computer about the suspension… We decided early on to stretch out because of the dust, so w...

But to get to awesome places, you often have to endure very bad roads. This was one of them… The road was so bad, there is very few pic’s. Everyone just wanted to get there. You pass through a gate into the park, and it gets a little bit better from there, but just a little bit, and just for a littl...

We left the next morning around 7. We were driving to the Northern most point of our Zambia trip: Ndole Bay on Lake Tanganyika. Dewald was told by the guy from Ndole Bay that the road, from the turnoff at Mporokoso was 50-60-50, or something like that. First 50 good, next 60 not good, and last 50 be...

It looked just the same as 6 years ago, when we stopped over en route to Serengeti. IMG_4474.jpg IMG_7275.jpg This time however, we were early, and had some proper time to spend in the hot springs… Lekker!!! DSC_0057.jpg IMG_4518.jpg The campsite is really nice, right on the river. Grass, clean ablu...

The drive to Kapishya was, after the previous day, fairly uneventful. Again, some awesome sights. IMG_0210.jpg IMG_0253.jpg Louise found time to give away some more clothes. IMG_0197.jpg IMG_0189.jpg IMG_0190.jpg Just after turning right on the tar road, Marnus had his first flat tyre - the one I mi...

Around 22h00 we were proven wrong about the traffic when we saw lights approaching from the front. An ambulance. We quickly moved fridges, kitchens etc back into the caravans for it to pass. The ambulance came back through again at about 02h15…. It was one of THOSE absolutely, truly amazing memorabl...

A little blood, some tears - Swambo is not prone to foul language, but even she had some choice words - she walked it up, and waited with Louize up top for us - and plenty sweat, but we made it. 120 km. 12 hours. (Of which the first 50 odd took about 90 minutes) Dewald, Jan and Ampie drove on. We we...

Fred was next. He knew only one way… He basically just gunned his Hilux from the bottom, and just drove his vehicle and caravan in one go up the whole incline. There ya go. No prob. IMG-20180805-WA0055.jpg I was last. I misjudged the line halfway up by literally no more than 15 cm, and had to stop. ...

I was right at the back, riding sweep. Lekker rustige tyd, had a sarmie, caught a power-nap, listened on the radio. Ampie’s tyre was changed, and he drove out. (Must mention here - I did not watch, but Marnus was impressed with the way the Landie handled the very steep incline - even though to is a ...

But then you cross a stream with a miniature waterfall, and suddenly…. Marnus’ description is the best: It’s like the road builder got gatvol, looked up The Escarpment, pointed basically straight up, and told the bulldozer: GO THERE! F. this winding, snaking, zig-zagging. GO THERE!! Really, reeeaaal...

We eventually got back on “the road”. But The Escarpment loomed… and it proved all we heard it promised… The fist 2 km is not to bad, it is a winding road up The Escarpment, but it is built in the traditional way, snaking, winding, zig-zagging up the steep incline. You can hear the vehicle’s engines...

And then it was like curtain through which we entered. There were just suddenly like millions and millions of horseflies (steekvlieë)… which swarmed around the vehicles, tap-tapping on the windows… And the the road just started to disappear… Dewald was lead, and us, having left the campsite first, a...

And then we reached the crossing that was rebuilt just a week before, the one Dewald thought… Naaah, can’t be that bad, we’ll make a plan to cross if it’s not finished… THIS one… IMG-20180805-WA0022.jpg IMG-20180805-WA0024.jpg IMG-20180805-WA0023.jpg I must tell you. Dewald might have made a plan to...

We entered the park, and the first 40-odd km was easy going. We passed the turnoff to where we saw the lion-kill, and carried on north. The road steadily got worse, it was quite obviously not the road of choice north from where we were coming. It was beautiful country though, that dense Mopani-fores...

Shortly after leaving Zikomo, Hannes called over the radio. He had a flat. We were first out and ahead, and him second. Wheel change first. IMG-20180804-WA0004.jpg While we waited, we witnessed another amazing sunrise through the trees. 20180702_062200.jpg 20180702_062332.jpg The drive to the park’s...

We left Zikomo early the next day, as we were well aware that it would be the longest - and most difficult - day of the entire trip. The plan was to, rather than drive back to Lusaka and go north from there, on tar, enter South Luangwa from the south and drive through the Park… Dewald does not do a ...

Previous night some of us heard a serious commotion somewhere in the distance across the riverbed in the park, but like really serious, with a lot of running, scuffling, and lion grunting and humph-ing... So we were driving around, and this Isuzu approached with a couple, stopped, told us to keep go...

Hannes, Ferdi, Ampie and Jan drove into the Park the next day - it's about a 40 minute drive to the entrance, and you then basically double back to drive in the park opposite the river where we camped. These are a little of what they saw... DSC_0745.jpg DSC_002855.jpg IMG_3657.jpg IMG_3769.jpg IMG_4...

On that first evening two guys very politely approached us and introduced themselves. They were there for us, and whatever else we needed done or washed, clothing, dishes, vehicles... And, more importantly, they were the security, on duty during the night, and if we saw torches moving in the night, ...

The following posts will just be pictures. It is just various pictures from just about everybody. I am not going to explain every pic, just give a brief summary here and there to not interrupt the flow of photo's. The photo's are just random picks from everybody's photo's, there are just too many to...

Zikomo is just outside South Luangwa National Park. There is a bar/swimming pool, and some chalet's looking out over the riverbed - the park is on the opposite side of the river bed. It had for me very much the same feels as Mana, except the river was dry, with the camping right on the edge of the r...

On the way to Chipata - Mama Rula's is just outside, Julius on the fly caught this two youngsters having an absolute ball on a bicycle obviously not either's... (considering his father was probably doing at least 120, the pic's are not bad...) just check the unbridled joy, especially on the guy at t...